Roaming charges cost almost as much as the flight to Vietnam ⋆

Roaming charges cost almost as much as the flight to Vietnam

An absent-minded tourist has racked up an eye-watering £727 Vodafone bill after turning his data on for less than a day. For more information about Vodafone roaming charges, find out below. vodafone roaming charges cost

Kash Iqbal’s sky-high data roaming charges cost almost as much as the flights to Asia, and he is demanding Vodafone quash the bill. vodafone roaming charges

When the 42-year-old got back on home soil, he realized his phone had been blocked. So he called up Vodafone and was gobsmacked when they said he had spent £727 on data roaming, charged at £1.80 per MB. Mr Iqbal of Harrow claims he used data roaming for a total of just four hours whilst in Vietnam when he was on a train and wanted to see a map.

Vodafone roaming charges cost

In fact, in just four hours Mr Iqbal went through almost 400mb, totaling £693. The entire cost of his two-week stay was just £1,500. The phone company says that Vietnam is not covered by its data roaming price plans and that much of the money will go to Vietnamese companies. Mr Iqbal said of checking his phone on the train journey: ‘I had no idea where I was and nobody on the train spoke any English and I wanted to make sure I didn’t get off at the wrong stop.

‘So I was trying to desperately try to search on Google Maps to see where I was. It wasn’t even working properly, so I was getting seriously, seriously pissed off. ‘But I needed to know where I was, and I needed to use Google Maps because I was alone on a ten-and-a-half-hour train trip.’ He added: ‘I was shocked and disgusted when I saw my bill. I’m not paying it, I’m changing to EE. ‘If they want the money they can sing for it. They’re shambolic and stupid, and they’re taking the p*ss.’ He claims Vodafone sent him a text when he initially landed saying his data roaming would be capped at £39.06 but then he was sent a bill saying he had been charged at £1.80 per MB used. He said: ‘Basically they’ve spoilt a fantastic two-week holiday in Vietnam. It was a nice break and I was hoping to come back refreshed. But instead, I came back to this. They’ve stitched me up.’

A spokeswoman for Vodafone said: ‘Vietnam is not covered by our roaming price plans so usage would be charged at the standard rate. ‘Mr Iqbal would have received a welcome message confirming that data would be charged at £1.80 per MB. A significant proportion of this charge goes to the overseas network operator.’ However, all is not lost for Mr Iqbal, Vodafone offered him a discount. The spokesman said: ‘The account has been closed and Mr Iqbal is no longer our customer. However, as a gesture of goodwill, we have offered to reduce the charges by 10%.’ (source)